Saudade
by endless-amber-skies
Summary: Rebuild, they had been told. Mankind finally arose from the ashes of the Human-Covenant war victorious, yet the remnants of the time beforehand would always lay a shadow upon the survivors..
1. Once Upon a Time

Rebuild, we were told. And rebuild we did.

The New base built in the ruins of what was once New Mombasa stood as the testament to the promise of a new beginning for Mankind and Sangheili alike. They may have returned to their own planet, but the reality of their newfound freedom from the threat of the Covenant was a victory longer entitled unto themselves.

Though formally designated as a base, both soldiers and civilians alike had begun new lives for themselves in the newly built Mombasa, and even children- children - and the concept of family, love.. Normalcy began to appear again, renew itself from the tragedy; playgrounds, schools, churches began to follow suit. The cradle of Mankind, of civilization had arisen from the ashes from whence it has begun countless are ago- it had taken years, but finally the smell of fire, of smoke and ash fell away to a distant memory, and the Kenyan mornings smelled of sun-baked earth once again.

It was around the time when the first generation born after the war reached school age that the Mombasa Research Facility and Database was opened. A library, detailing everything from the first pages of the written testament to the first steps on the moon, up until the library s opening had been transcribed, and efforts were being made to include Sangheili history and texts into the database as well. The facilities AI, apparently, was a real piece of work; Self-learning, teaching, and able to keep track of billions of volumes of information and bring them up simply upon request- a program, surely, that could rival that of the fabled Cortana.  
Bless her and one-seventeen, wherever they may be.

I guess then that I should say that all of this started because I had merely been curious.


	2. Velveteen

It had looked somewhat archaic, really- no doubt the construct of a society to return to the ways of life before a devastating war. The doors were flanked by gothic columns, the inscription of the legendary Hilldside Memorial engraved in a plaque above them:

_In memory of those fallen _

_in the defense of Earth and Her colonies._

Off to the side, a relief of a human officer and a Sangheili- the Arbiter, no doubt -shaking hands was carved painstakingly into a rounded, marble slab. The captain standing before the facility followed the intricate latticework etched into the walls with his eyes, up to the cathedral-like spires with the flags of fallen nations unfurling in the sky. This was it- this facility was the last piece of the history of man, lest it be scattered once again to the winds.

The glass panels of the research facility slid open before him as he approached the sensor, a small group of children clustered before a reflective circle built into the floor of an impressive lobby- as he looked closer, the entire surface of the glass floors glowed faintly with a luminous substance, a sheen. A beam of light illuminated itself from the reflective surface, leading to a row of bookshelves a few feet away.

"_Here, sweetheart_," a warm voice lilted from the center of the group. "_The Velveteen Rabbit_. _If you would like, children, you can all gather around in the reading corner and I shall gladly read it to you_." The group of children scrambled off, following the lit path as more waiting patrons assembled before the glowing field in a semi-circle, and more of the warm, dulcet tones emanating from it as another shaft of light led toward another row of bookshelves in the facility. This went on for a time as he observed quietly, until he had found himself standing before the circle, drawn toward it.

"_Captain Edwin Von Kerr. I am so pleased that you could visit us today, and for the first time if my records are correct. How may I help you?"_

He felt the breath freeze in his lungs as the form of a young woman flickered above the glass panel in the floor, significantly shorter in comparison to his six-foot-one, looking up at him expectantly. His legs, his hands went numb.

"_Oh....oh Christ_..."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_It had only been several weeks since the civilian medical team had been sent to my base, desperate additions to our medical staff since so many enlisted in lieu of joining the fighting ranks. They had all been hesitant to assimilate with the other marines wandering about, unused and clearly out of place in the military lifestyle; and they were all easily identified by the uniforms they wore, identical to the scrubs medical professionals wore in the civilian hospitals back in the colonies and on Earth._

_One day a fight broke out in the mess during lunch. Blows were exchanged between a Marine and one of the medical team at one of the food dispensers, and nobody had stepped in to help because they were both women. The entire hall broke into shouts and catcalls, until a stunned silence fell over us like a wave, the Marine now laying on the floor as the woman dressed in scrubs- and pink scrubs, of all colors -stood over her, hair now disheveled and shaken loose from the neat bun that was standard for all of the females on the base. _

_"You see now- there really is no need for you to be saying things like that about me or my friends here. I, for one, obviously know how to fight." She crouched beside the fallen woman, and we all expected to give her another blow- instead, she reached her hand out to her, and gave her a disarming, sincere smile. Hesitantly, the Marine took it and something palpable, something like camaraderie had developed between the two groups for the first time._

_"Now suck it up and let me attend to those wounds."_

_It wasn't, however, the first time I had noticed her._

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The voice in the corner of the library continued to chirp warmly, the voice reading to the group of children assembled in the corner.

"_Real isn't how you are made, said the Skin Horse. It's a thing that happens to you. When you are loved for a long, long time- not just to play with- but really and truly loved, then you become Real."_

The voice, however, still spoke simultaneously right in front of him, and the effect was as equally bewildering.

"_Hello_? Hello, Captain Kerr, are you feeling alright? Shall I call the medical terminal and request assistance?" The holographic construct had stepped forward from her illuminated halo toward him, a hand over her chest with her brow furrowed in sincere worry. She was bathed in a honey-warm glow, a mandorla of golden light surrounding her body. Edwin looked briefly at the hand pressed to her bosom, her left one- her fingernails were like tiny pieces of pale, stained glass. She was too radiant, too close.

Too soon.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dawn, formerly of the UNSC _Righteous Absolution_, and now the designated Artificial Intelligence system for this database. Are you sure that you do not want me to call medical personnel to assist you?'" Her hands then went behind her back, and she cocked her head as she gave him a shy, lopsided smile- as real and as charming as any human woman could give.

"Forgive me for saying so, but up until a moment ago you were looking quite well. You look, as they say, like you've seen a ghost."


End file.
